Venture Global (NYSE:VG) Upgraded to “Moderate Sell” at US Capital Advisors

US Capital Advisors upgraded shares of Venture Global (NYSE:VG) to a moderate sell rating in a research report released on Monday morning,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on the company. Capital One Financial assumed coverage on Venture Global in a research note on Tuesday, November 4th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $11.00 price target for the company. Wells Fargo & Company set a $8.00 price objective on shares of Venture Global in a research report on Monday. UBS Group raised shares of Venture Global from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $18.00 target price for the company in a research report on Monday, August 25th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Venture Global from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $17.00 price target on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 28th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Venture Global from $16.00 to $9.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, November 24th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Venture Global presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $14.25.

Venture Global Stock Performance

VG stock opened at $5.92 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $8.21 and a 200 day simple moving average of $12.41. Venture Global has a 52 week low of $5.87 and a 52 week high of $25.50. The stock has a market cap of $14.48 billion and a P/E ratio of 7.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.46, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a current ratio of 0.83.

Venture Global (NYSE:VG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 10th. The company reported $0.16 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.22 by ($0.06). Venture Global had a return on equity of 29.55% and a net margin of 21.99%.The company had revenue of $3.33 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.23 billion. The firm’s revenue was up 259.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Venture Global will post 0.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Venture Global Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 15th will be paid a $0.017 dividend. This represents a $0.07 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 15th. Venture Global’s payout ratio is presently 7.69%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Thomas Earl sold 1,000,000 shares of Venture Global stock in a transaction on Friday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.89, for a total value of $6,890,000.00. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP Fory Musser sold 776,298 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $8.06, for a total transaction of $6,256,961.88. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 3,000,000 shares of company stock worth $22,904,729 over the last quarter. 86.73% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Venture Global

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in VG. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Venture Global by 147.4% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,862,372 shares of the company’s stock worth $324,417,000 after buying an additional 13,620,863 shares during the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. bought a new position in Venture Global during the second quarter worth $76,489,000. Millennium Management LLC acquired a new position in Venture Global during the 1st quarter valued at $32,099,000. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. bought a new stake in Venture Global in the 1st quarter valued at $28,673,000. Finally, Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. acquired a new stake in Venture Global in the 1st quarter worth $20,085,000.

Venture Global Company Profile

Venture Global has fundamentally reshaped the development and construction of liquefied natural gas production, establishing us as a rapidly growing company delivering critical LNG to the world. Our innovative and disruptive approach, which is both scalable and repeatable, allows us to bring LNG to a global market years faster and at a lower cost.